We have mechanism to curb sexual harassment - ASUU
With the rising cases of sexual intimidation in Nigerian universities, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), says adequate mechanism has been put in place to tackle cases of intimidation and harassment of students in tertiary institutions. The National President of the association, Biodun Ogunyemi, made this known in Abuja. In recent times, many university professors have been sacked over the unethical practices that usually involve the demand for sex or money, in exchange for marks. Last week, the University of Abuja sacked four senior lecturers over similar misdeeds, while some lecturers in other universities have even been prosecuted and jailed. Ogunyemi, who described the trend as “sad”, said ASUU had set up an Ethics Committee in every university to ensure that its members did not go out of their bounds. “ASUU has always been concerned with the conduct of our members and we have put in place mechanisms to ensure that our members don’t go out of their bounds. “If you check our constitution, we have attached to it what we call `code of practice’. Our code of practice places a lot of emphasis on ethical issues. “Some of these cases you have mentioned are part of the issues that we are trying to engage and interrogate. “Contrary to what people say, we do our own internal cleansing, but we don’t see that as the primary issue for our existence. They are issues that just come along the line. “What we do basically is, where we have such cases, we do our own investigation, once we can establish a prima facie case, we hand them over to the universities. “Some of the cases that you later hear about could have even been initiated by the union.” Ogunyemi added that the university system had its processes and once cases of intimidation and harassment occur, they are referred to the university disciplinary process who handle such cases. He advised students to report cases of intimidation and harassment at the ASUU secretariat on the campuses. “Once the matter gets to us, we shall track the erring lecturer or worker. Read the full article